Management Thoughts for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs often talk about how many hours they work at their businesses. They are fixated on the notion that working long hours translates to success. Most often this is not true.

Is working hard for long hours always a good thing?

How productive you are is the determinant of success, not necessarily working long hours. Of course, one needs to put in the effort to succeed. However, make sure that the focus is on “Doing the Right Things,” not doing too many things not too well.

The working longer syndrome sometimes is also transferred to the Entrepreneur’s employees. Entrepreneurs sometimes have a tendency to judge employees on how long they work. The focus should be on what employees accomplish and how productive they are.

Stress time management and productive effort to enhance performance! Working hard is good only if it is productive.

After new employees start work, on-boarding, orientation and making them aware of the company’s Vision, Mission and culture should be a standard part of any hiring process. How many Entrepreneurs do that?

Even if you have a robust on-boarding process, what do you do to keep your employees actively engaged in your company?

Entrepreneurs don’t treat working in their company as a “job.” They need to develop that sense of spirit in their employees. Employees should feel closely attached to the Mission of the company such that they view their job in a macro sense – as having a direct impact on fulfilling the Mission rather than just completing assigned tasks.

Offering material rewards for accomplishments works for a while. What is more important is the emotional engagement of employees in the company such that they personally identify themselves with the company’s success (and failures). Finding ways to engage employees in a meaningful way should be a key objective for Entrepreneurs.

Engaged employees are generally happy and productive. Get them involved in your company.

Many articles and books have been written about entrepreneurial investing in businesses and property. Entrepreneurs are also encouraged to invest in their people, in these blogs and elsewhere.

So it makes sense that Entrepreneurs should also invest in themselves.

How do you invest in yourself? What have you been doing to improve your skills, thinking, knowledge, perspective and so on? Entrepreneurs need to invest in themselves by continually improving themselves – not only as business leaders, but also as individuals, marital or other partners, family persons, and social and community leaders.

Making yourself better inspires your people to do the same and that’s leadership. Investing in yourself provides emotional and spiritual rewards that far exceed material ones.

“A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are.” – Ara Parasheghian

Like good coaches, leaders have to find the potential in their people. When hiring, don’t merely evaluate the current skills and experience of the applicant. Rather, determine what the person can become with proper coaching and training.

Given the right coaching, raw talent can be molded to perform at exceptional levels in any organization. The problem for Entrepreneurs is that they mostly focus on short-term needs and do not have a long-term vision for human resource acquisition and management.

When a sculptor views a stone, he/she is evaluating whether it could be transformed into a thing of beauty. Similarly a land developer sees beyond the empty expanse of land and has a vision of what a housing community or golf course it could become.

Entrepreneurial leaders have a great vision of what their idea or product could become. They need to use a similar vision towards their people and see their potential rather than what they are right now.

Entrepreneurs start businesses to be successful. They develop their Vision and Mission and establish clear goals.

How do they define success?

For some it is defined in terms of money or the ability to acquire material things. For some others it is to be the biggest or best or change the world. A few define success as being famous. Some have noble objectives in terms of helping people, enhancing lives, creating jobs, or eradicating diseases.

No matter of how they define it, Entrepreneurial success is short-lived if it is not associated with happiness. Even if you achieve all the other objectives, if you are unhappy then success does not mean much.

Ensure your happiness to enjoy success. Define your success in terms of being happy for the long term!